ANGRY: McLaren star Jenson Button is fuming with comments made by Ron Dennis earlier this week in the run up to the British Grand Prix [GETTY]

Button is fuming over remarks leading up to this weekend's British Grand Prix from Dennis who said that he expected his driver as a world champion to "try harder" and to beat his rookie team-mate Kevin Magnussen consistently.

With contract negotiations looming, it was a shot across the bows for the 2009 world champion.

But he was not impressed, particularly as McLaren, who have played catch up with their cars for five years and have not won a race since Button's triumph in Brazil at the end of 2012.

They did not have a single podium place last season and have been down among the also-rans since Magnussen and Button finished second and third in the season's opener in Australia.

"I think Ron is practising to be a motivational speaker,"said Button cuttingly. "I don't need motivation and it doesn't really work for me.

"I think I am doing a really good job. I feel fitter than ever, more focused than ever.

"I don't do things in half measures. Everything is 100 per cent.

"We are not in a good place as a team and we all, as a team, need to do a better job. When we are in the position we have been in for the past 18 months, it is not easy.

"We all need to work harder as a team and we shouldn't be pointing a finger at any individual.

CRITICAL: McLaren boss Ron Dennis urged Button to try harder [GETTY]

“We are not in a good place as a team and we all, as a team, need to do a better job. When we are in the position we have been in for the past 18 months, it is not easy”

Jenson Button

"When you have been in the sport a long time and if you believe in your own ability and how good you are and feel you are at your peak, it shouldn't worry you."

Button, 34, is out of contract at the end of the season after five years with McLaren who will split with Mercedes and start a new engine deal with Honda from 2015.

That will take some time to bed in but Button, who worked with Honda when they had their own team and at Brawn where he won the world title in 2009, wants to be part of a McLaren revival.

"I would like to stay," he added. "This team has a bright future and the partnership with Honda will help the team a lot, having that connection with a manufacturer.

"But it isn't the only team in Formula One."

McLaren are currently sixth in the constructors' championship behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, Force India and Williams which makes grim reading for the most successful team in British F1 history

And Button added: "I am not getting as much enjoyment as the guy who is winning but I am enjoying my job. I just wish we were further up the grid.

"Whether it is meant to be motivational, I don't know. The guys I work with in the team are doing an awesome job. Most won't have an influence on the development of the car but the mechanics are working flat out 24/7."

Susie Woolf will today become the first woman in 22 years to get behind the wheel of an F1 car at a grand prix weekend.

Woolf is too old to for an F1 career at 31 but her drive in the first practice session today as the Williams development driver is a real boost for women in motorsport.